Chapter 46 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good Monday Morning to this week 47 of 2020 Recently I was asking God to speak to me and was so sure that it would be in words, in a book or in a message. The sentence with the expected words didn’t arrive, I started to get impatient and continued my journey to work. Then something strange happened, a new song started on my playlist, it played with a very slow beautiful pad of a synthesizer and bass introducing the tune. It was as if God was way saying, I have many dwellings – I will speak to you through music and tunes! Listen in! I was greatly humbled and moved. Then a friend asked me to send the song to him, but I can’t find it on my playlist anymore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. John 14:16 Keener, Craig, Gift and Giver, writes about John 14:2\u20133. In the passage, Jesus assures his disciples that he is going to the Father\u2019s house to prepare a place for them among the many dwellings “mansions” He promises that he will return to them and that they will be with him forever in his Father\u2019s house. It is not surprising if we are unsure what Jesus was talking about, for even Jesus\u2019 original disciples were confused. First, Jesus explains what he means by his coming again to his disciples after the resurrection. At that time he will give them his Spirit, through whom they will experience his presence and resurrection life. Second, Jesus explains what he means by the \u201cdwellings\u201d in the Father\u2019s house: our current dwelling in God\u2019s presence. Through the Spirit, Jesus and the Father will come and make their dwelling within each disciple, thus making them temples of the Lord (the Father\u2019s house). The term dwell, or abide, which is the verb form of dwelling, appears several times in John 15, where Jesus talks about dwelling with us and we with him. That means we seek not a single experience but a continuing relationship, daily encountering our master in the power of his Holy Spirit, living out of the power already imparted to us when we became followers of Jesus Christ. But if we become more yielded to his power in our lives through such experiences as Acts describes, then by all means we should be ready to encounter God in many different dwellings. Chapter 46 Good Monday Morning to this week 47 of 2020 \u201cThe wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.\u201d \u2013 John 3:8 Recently I was asking God to speak to me … <\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.\u201d \u2013 John 3:8<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Paraclete<\/strong> means advocate or helper and comes from the\u00a0Koine in Greek. It’s a combination of “para” (beside\/alongside) and “kalein” to call, the word first appears in the\u00a0Bible\u00a0in John 14:16.\u00a0John Muddiman\u00a0explain; The word\u00a0parakletos<\/em>\u00a0is a verbal adjective, often used of one called to help in a law court. In the Jewish tradition the word was transcribed with Hebrew letters and used for angels, prophets, and the just as advocates before God’s court. The word is filled with a complex meaning: the Spirit replaces Jesus, is an advocate and a witness, but also consoles the disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the description of Paul Young in “The Shack” The Holy Spirit appears as a semi-transparent Asian woman named Sarayu. Young explains in his interview with Kim Gravel that this name, which is a Hindi word for a refreshing wind, was suggested to him by an Indian friend. He had been looking for a word that carried a sense of the Spirit as a wind, which is a biblical image of the Spirit\u2019s activity.\u00a0 In fact, the Greek word for spirit,\u00a0pneuma<\/em>, also means wind. The derivation of the name and the ethereal nature of Sarayu make this depiction of the Spirit relatively easy to accept, especially since most Christians are unlikely to conceive of the Spirit as either male or female. In fact, the clear depiction of the Spirit as a person is probably a healthy redress to the tendency some believers have to think of Him as merely an impersonal force to be referred to as \u201cit\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To the rational mind, the things of the Spirit often seem like foolishness. We can trust our heavenly Father to give us good gifts when we ask for them. So let us be unafraid and press in to ask Him for more of his wonderful Holy Spirit, more of his Dwellings, his Comforter, his Pneuma, His Sarayu – all that we may abide in Him!
Wishing you blessed week, dwelling in His wind!
Philemon <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"